Streetlights for CWG: Delhi government orders probe

New Delhi, Feb 6: The Delhi government Thursday asked its anti-corruption bureau to investigate the alleged irregularities in installing streetlights during the 2010 Commonwealth Games organised under then chief minister Sheila Dikshit.

The decision came two days after the Arvind Kejriwal government recommended to the president strict action against Dikshit for the alleged irregularities in distributing provisional certificates to unauthorised colonies.

“We have asked the anti-corruption bureau to find out why ineligible companies were made eligible and how the purchases (of streetlights) were made at escalated prices,” minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.

Asked whether there will be a probe against Dikshit, Sisodia said the probe will not be at an individual level.

Earlier, an official statement said: “There was clear collusion with vendors by some officials and then chief minister to cause huge financial loss to the government and wrongful gain to the vendors, contractors and others.”

Citing the “strong findings” of reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the prime minister-appointed Shunglu Committee on the Commonwealth Games, Sisodia said officials of municipal bodies and Delhi government were involved in it.

The items which had market rates of Rs.7,000-Rs.8,000 were purchased at higher rates of up to Rs.31,000, Sisodia said.

In its poll campaign, the Aam Aadmi Party went hammer and tongs against the Congress government that had organised the Commonwealth Games.

The AAP had promised to send the guilty, including then chief minister Dikshit, behind bars.